You are here

OpenMarket: February 2013

Anyone with an interest in the science of bisphenol A (BPA)--a chemical used to make hard, clear plastics and resins that line food containers -- should read Trevor Butterworth's recent Q&A with researcher Richard M. Sharpe, who specializes in male reproductive health issues at the University of Edinburgh.
I've commented many times on significant problems surrounding many of the recent studies on BPA and how hype about its risks can harm human health...

Openmarket.org
We know the story of Chicken Little. The little chick thought the sky was falling because he was hit in the head by an acorn. He convinced the other barnyard animals that the sky was falling and soon they were all in hysterics.
Well, when it comes to sequestration cuts impact on federal employees, union officials have adopted a Chicken Little approach. Feeding Big Labor’s frenzy is tomorrow’s March 1 sequestration deadline with no deal to delay budget cuts in sight.
For the past few weeks, federal union leaders have been lobbying anyone who will listen to deflect cuts away from federal workers in favor of anything else. Today in U.S. News and World Report, I criticize these union officials, which many never...

We know the story of Chicken Little. The little chick thought the sky was falling because he was hit in the head by an acorn. He convinced the other barnyard animals that the sky was falling and soon they were all in hysterics.
Well, when it comes to sequestration cuts impact on federal employees, union officials have adopted a Chicken Little approach. Feeding Big Labor’s frenzy is tomorrow’s March 1 sequestration deadline with no deal to delay budget cuts in sight.
For the past few weeks, federal union leaders have been lobbying anyone who will listen to deflect cuts away from federal workers in favor of anything else. Today in U.S. News and World Report, I criticize these union officials, which many never do any government work:

Yet again, the Obama administration is busy engaging in scare tactics about sequestration, inflating its impact on the government and the country (to the point of falsely claiming it will result in budget cuts at an non-existent agency that closed its doors last June).
But in reality, the sequestration's automatic budget cuts will help the economy in the long run, as we previously pointed out. Wells Fargo's chief economist now...

Opposition to spending cuts in America has been based heavily on "the myth of British austerity," even though "if the British government is practicing austerity it is hard to see," since government spending still consumes half of Britain's GDP, and government spending there is virtually unchanged.
Indeed, spending is "projected to" grow modestly in England over the next few years. If England is not actually practicing austerity, why have critics of austerity...

Immigration restrictions are more than just violations of the liberties of foreigners. Truly a society that restricts the freedom of certain groups restricts the freedom of all. Apologists for state action will reassure voters that each new intrusion into society will only impact the “one-percent” -- that is to say that restrictions on the liberty of marginal groups will leave yours unaffected. The message underlying each government intervention is that your freedom is safe, or even enhanced by another’s loss in liberty.
Immigration restrictionists assure Americans that the sacrifice of the immigrant’s freedom of movement entails no limitation on the liberty of Americans. But liberty is not atomistic. The government cannot simply excise the liberty of one group and leave the freedom of all others unaffected. Just as free speech violations violate not just the rights of the speaker to...

As I have pointed out over the past month and TheWall Street Journal’s Danny Yadron noted last week, many members of Congress are looking to impose a mandatory national identification system. Demonstrating that this attempt is gaining momentum, The Washington Post editorialized in favor of a national ID system earlier this month. Its editors wrote:

Critics on both the civil-liberties left and the libertarian right have long resisted...

As we noted earlier, the automatic budget cuts contained in the sequester will help the economy in the long run, even if they are painful in the short term. This is partly because the budget cuts, by reducing America's trillion dollar budget deficits, will reduce the future economic burden of servicing America's skyrocketing national debt, a burden that will crowd...